Convincing Death
by wisegirlindisguise
Summary: Death let a few slide when he got captured. Now, he's trying to reign them in with the help of a group of half-bloods we know oh so well. What happens when Nico has got a soul he doesn't want to let go?
1. Chapter 1

**Hello all. I came up with this torture idea and wanted to share it somehow, but the story I originally matched it with never made it to my computer. I like it better in this story anyways. **

**WARNING: This Fanfiction is rated T for gore! Especially in this first chapter! **

**I hope you enjoy. Welcome to my mind. **

* * *

><p>One never realizes the things they miss until they're gone…or they change.<p>

The change that is rubbed in my face is the birds. One wakes up to the same birds every morning. They sing this sweet song every morning welcoming you to the day. It's gorgeous. Once you go some place new the birds change. Thinking about it now, you notice that it's the first thing you realize when you wake up. Those aren't the same birds.

Honestly…honestly, I miss my birds.

My birds didn't rub it in my face that I couldn't join them in song. They didn't taunt me with the real world and their happiness. I'll tell you a secret… some mornings I still find myself whistling with them or humming. I'm told I shouldn't. I'm told by myself. Chances are, I'll die here. I know that. I've accepted it, but when pain is all I know, can't I have just a little bit of happiness? I think I've earned that. I think a lot of things, things I shouldn't.

You all think I'm crazy. I'm not in my right mind. I don't have a left mind either though. So, I'm nowhere? I'm lost I suppose. I am somewhere; I just don't know where. With nothing but truth in my words, I'm really happy not knowing. Knowing where I was would begin the thoughts of escape.

I've been told if I try to run they'll kill me. I'm disposable, in other words. So I will not run because the longer they're left with me to torture and pick at the longer they'll stay away from Camp Half Blood. I'm only a scab though, I'll fall away eventually which either means I'll give in, or they'll grow tired of my games.

The door rattled with a blow from someone outside and soon the door was open. An _empousai_ stood there with a vicious grin. "I told you she would be looking forward to breaking you. Well, she's heard your story and she is ready to see you." She snickered and snatched at me pulling me by my arm toward the door. She just dragged me, wither her hoof clopping and her metal leg clanking. "I can't wait to hear you scream." She sounded like a cheer leader, a demonic cheerleader. She had this high pitched voice almost like a small child.

I had heard people screaming before. I had heard far too much in the time I was here. I had only been here a week though. A lot of them were male screams. There were some female screams though. Every time, it chilled me to the bone. The hairs on my arms would stand up on end. Granted, I had been hit or struck a few times on my way in, but then they had put me on lockdown. I hadn't seen a soul in almost seven days. This would've been my seventh. Obviously, my cell had been stirred.

The _empousai _dragged me into a room that had a table shaped like a t. The metal of the table was glistening clean and smelled of bleach as she pushed me down onto it. She chained down my feet so that they were nearly roped together with only about an inch of freedom to move my legs at all. My arms were spread out across the table and restrained with chain at the ends of the cross so that my arms couldn't move at all. Then she took a piece of worn leather that was attached to the table. The inside of it was stained with blood and I stretched trying to keep my mouth away from it. But she clamped it down on my and tightened it until I couldn't move my lips. There was no way out.

"Just give her a few minutes to wake. You're her first appointment of the day." The chuckle she emitted on the way out made a swell form in my throat. I would not be crying when she came in though. I wouldn't allow her that pleasure. Just the thought of her wasn't going to reduce me to that. Sometimes you can't control those sorts of things though.

When she walked in she smiled at me the most vicious smile. Every one of her teeth was sharpened to a point that made her smile filled with hundreds and hundred of teeth. There was a speck of blood on her cheek that she swiped away with her finger tip and apologized because she was a messy eater and her morning snack had been a squirmer. She was wearing a white peasant blouse with ruffles that synched at the smallest part of her waist and then carried on for another half a foot, but as soon as the shirt ended the scaled began reaching further and further down. My eyes followed the length of the scales until I got to the very end of the snakes tail with was also a rude point.

"So my dear, I hear you have some information, information that my darlings need. Oh, but you'll give us this information because Death needs to be put to rest." Quietly, almost without me realizing it, she made the first slit on my stomach. For a moment, there was no pain until the air finally seemed to attack the wound. Searing pain began and I tried to scream, but it was muffled by the leather. "Oh yes, my nails do a fine job." She looked at her fingernails as if they were a prized possession and then she picked up a knife looking at it. "Dull," she smirked, "it'll do."

She pushed the knife into my bleeding wound and tore through more flesh. An aching scream ripped up my throat and I tried to let it out, but it left me breathless and it had no where to go. After that I began to bite my lip every time she would make a slice. There was one that went all the way across from my rib cage to my hip in a diagonal line and she continued to cut these ragged lines in me until my tears ran dry. She put down the knife and smirked.

"You're really very gorgeous my dear." Her smirk faded into a gentle smile and she continued on with casual conversation. "My name is Lamia by the way. Queen of Libya. It's unfortunate we had to cross paths, really it is, but then again your daddy is the reason we're here. "I want to hear your voice though. It's an unfortunate trait of mine. I like conversation." She unbuckled the leather from my mouth and I let out a horrendous scream. My mouth tasted of blood and my cheeks felt raw from where I had bitten them over and over again. "There you go." She made it seem as if she had done me a favor.

It wasn't the most disturbing part.

She ran her fingers along the edges of the table in my blood, my blood that had long since overflowed the edges of the table and spilt onto the floor. She then lifted her finger to her mouth sucking it clean. She closed her eyes and hummed in approval. "I'll see you later my dear." Her tail seemed to turn her around and then she was gone. I relaxed back against the table and began to cry again just hoping for death to come though I knew that wasn't the plan. They would keep me alive for as long as possible. I was going to be stuck here for years if they could milk that much life out of me.

The empousai came in and started to unlatch my hands when a boy came through the door. He had dark hair and dark eyes. To match, a black sword was in his hands. The only bright thing was the silver ring on his right hand in the shape of a skull. Skeletons followed him into the room and soon the empousai was nothing but a pile of golden dust.

"I've been looking for you," the boy with dark hair told me. He used his dark blade to cut straight through the chains on my feet and then my hands. "Come on, let's go." He sheathed his blade and picked me up from the table. "Cover me," he told two of the skeletons. He then instructed the others to stay behind and free the other people held captive. Like that, I had been saved, saved by none other than Nico di Angelo.

* * *

><p><strong>Thank you for those of you that read, and if you don't mind tell me what you think. I want to see what you think of this story! Let me know. Thank you again. <strong>

**Sincerely,**

**wisegirlindisguise**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello all. I still had some inspiration for this story to spill so I hope you enjoy! I think this will turn out interestingly if I can finish it. I really am trying to finish my stories. I am. I promise. **

* * *

><p>I remembered making it into some sort of car, but then I passed out. I was so tired and ready to just relax. Unfortunately, that wasn't what this boy wanted from me. I had yet to learn his name formally though now I know it's Nico. He wanted me awake, so I stayed in an unaware state of consciousness. AKA: I was completely zoned out.<p>

The next official time that I woke up I was in a soft cushy bed. The boy was standing in the doorway in a pair of swim trunks that seemed to be made of a collage of blacks and grays. To finish it off he had a black v-neck t shirt. He looked at piece though the gun he had tucked into the waist line of his pants was obvious at the small of his back. His hair was a mess and he was gorgeous.

"I'm glad you're awake," he turned around to face me and the darkness of his eyes hit me suddenly. His eyes were a dark brown that swirled on endlessly as if one could fall in, like the pit of Tartarus. I was about to open my mouth to say my name and he tossed a file onto the bed. "I assume you know who you are, but this s your file now. Use these cards and this name. This room is under my name. Well one of them." That seemed to tickle him somehow because he cracked a smile. I hadn't seen him smile yet.

He looked me up and down and sighed. The smile was gone like that. He closed the French doors he had been looking out and turned back to me. "My name is Nico di Angelo. You're in Palm Springs, California in a place called Old Ranch Inn."

I looked around at the room and Nico whistled. "Brandie," my real name. I looked back to him and he nodded. "You just got healed finally. You've been out for three, four days. Yours truly has been here the whole time. So now that you're awake I'm jumping in the pool." He winked at me, actually winked at me, and then he opened the door that led outside and then moments later there was a splash.

With a hefty effort I pulled myself up into the sitting position getting a better look at all of the room. It was clean as if the maid service had just gone through. There was a small couch in the sitting area that had a pillow and a blanket in a stack at one end. The blanket was folded just so. That was probably Nico's sleeping space.

"Ms. Maggie," I checked the file and then turned to the women stepping into the room. She smiled at me calmly. I noticed the staff name tag on her collar and welcomed her in. I was Maggie Lions. Nice. "Mr. di Angelo said I should ask you if you were hungry. Every time I come in you're always sleeping so only Mr. di Angelo eats around me."

"I would love some food. Do you guys have burgers?" The woman nodded and turned away, hurrying off. She looked almost scared of me as she made her way out and then she was gone all together.

I roused myself from bed slowly after that. I knew who I was, but I was no evil. Finding the need to get up was the hard part. Once I was up though I wandered around freely. I found the restroom and stood in front of the sink where I traced the patterns inside of it. When I looked up I met my reflection.

Wow…

My hair was brushed and in a braid to the side of my neck where the braid still reached a few inches past my bust. My clothes were clean and whole. There was no evidence of someone slicing at me, not until I lifted my shirt. Scars stretched across my skin in pink jagged lines and then they rounded off into synched ends.

"It'll fade eventually Maggie," Nico used my new name, but I didn't even turn to him.

"I don't care." I lowered my shirt and pushed past him into the main room where my burger was waiting. Without realizing how hungry I was I took to the burger. It felt like only a few bites and then I was left to pick at the surviving fries.

Nico shut the door to our room and hung the do not disturb sign on the knob outside. I knew that people would assume far too much from the outside, but he was keeping out any of the help and any of the intruders. He sat down to talk to me on his respective couch while I curled up in the chair across the coffee table from him.

"It'll keep my friends out," he told me as if he needed to explain the _Do Not Disturb _sign.

"Your friends are here?" I asked just trying to avoid the conversation he was going to broach eventually.

"No, but I don't doubt they'll be here soon which is when I'll have to say goodbye to you." Nico clasped his hands together and leaned forward looking at me as if I was supposed to start the conversation I didn't want to have. "Why are they looking for you?" He finally asked. I wasn't sure if he already knew the answer. Chances were, he was just asking to make sure I knew and was aware of the situation.

"You know my story Nico…" I muttered. "It's your job to know. That's how you found me before your friends found me. You hunt people like me. That's why you sent the rest of the captives back to your precious little camp because I'm not supposed to exist. So, how about just kill me now?"

"You will not talk to me like that," Nico hissed and slowly I felt my throat closing up. Air was cut off so suddenly I gasped for the last couple seconds of breath I had and then I held it. I would not give him the satisfaction. He was doing exactly what I had asked from him, so when he stopped I continued to hold my breath. He grabbed my by the shoulders and shook my self control away.

"Get away from me," I growled and he back up holding up his hands in surrender. He sat back down and then hung his head waiting patiently for me to break. "My mom and I were in a car crash twenty years ago.

"My dad thought it was the greatest thing ever because he got a new soldier to help him. I got to be the one to help him. I worked in the world while he sat at the gates of Hell and kept people inside. I traveled around and I killed people; that was my job. Do you know who my best friend was for those twenty years?

"Keres. I was their parole officer, made sure they didn't kill anyone they weren't supposed to. Then I go back and my dad's gone! I try and stand at the gate. I stopped a couple of monster souls and of course I'm the problem now. So whose the first person to be thrown back into the living? A place I never wanted to go back to? Me. I get thrown back so that I can't do shit to stop anyone." I looked to the ground and shook my head.

"You don't want to be alive?" Nico asked as if my point hadn't been explained yet.

"No, my power that I got from my father is hard to control and I may have it under control right now, but I lose my cool once and there's no telling who I could take out." I looked at him momentarily and sighed just watching him as he processed it. I already knew what his next question was though so I stood and walked toward him.

"Take out?" He whispered as I got close. "You didn't even get a chance to do anything: fall in love, have a life."

"Why have a life when I can take it?" I breathed and caressed his face as if I was his lover. Slowly his skin began to age. His cheeks hollowed out and liver spots appeared on the backs of his hands where they were shriveling up on the couch next to him. He looked up at me as the light faded from his eyes and a dead glint took their place as cataracts took over his pupils like clouds of smoke. When I took my hand away life came back to him. The fullness to his lips returned and the light came back to his eyes. "Didn't feel a thing, did ya?"

He didn't he look my in the eye. He stood up as fast as he could and walked out of the room grabbing the towel he had originally brought in as a tool to dry his hair. Nico was gone just like that and I didn't see him for the rest of the day.

I found myself out at the pool around midnight when I was sure everyone else was sure to be in bed. I wore a simple black bikini and laid myself out on a lounge chair pool side. From where I was I watched the moon over the mountains where it sat like a spotlight for the world. Even then it left the mountains in shadows as if it had been isolated. It was like a picture in grey scale except everything was a shade of silver even my own skin. My dark auburn hair was the only thing that matched the shadows becomes it seemed black in the light.

An orange light crept down the walkway that led to the pool until a woman appeared. At first, I thought to ignore her. She most likely had a light with her to see her way through the dark. However, the light flickered and was large. I stood up quickly and turned toward the light where the empousai I had met once was.

"Hell fire would look good on you Dear." She chuckled lifting the ends of my hair which singed with the closeness of her hair.

"I disagree." I stepped out of her light and submersed myself back into darkness.

"Well aren't you just back in your element?" She sat down on one of the regular chairs. The plastic strips that made up the back and the metal began to heat up, but she didn't even seem to mind. When they melted, concern never crossed her face. "Oh wait, I have something for you so it'll just be picturesque." She pulled a black bag from her side and slowly shifted through it until she pulled out a long black piece of cloth. "Here you go." She tossed it to me and I caught it before it could make into the pool. "Go ahead! Put it on! I'll take a nice photo! It'll be awesome! And then we can leave here, no problem."

I nodded as if it was going to happen that way. Nico was already standing silently at the end of walkway with his sword drawn. His silence was scary in an inconceivable way so I'll let you imagine that even a dog couldn't hear him move into the vicinity. I pulled on the cloak she had brought me. I fastened it at the neck and smiled as I realized she had actually cut slits into the back of the cloak. Being careful I pulled the hood into place so that it covered everything but my lips that were their natural bare color. Wings pushed from my back and sent a way of air through the billow cloak so that they extra cloth at its ends flowered out into a circle around where I stood.

The empousai giggled like a girl that had just found the perfect prom dress as she fumbled for her camera. She snapped a picture with no flash. I'm sure I looked like scariest shadow anyone had ever seen. I could see by the look on Nico's face that I was right. I could also see that he recognized me.

With a blatant mindlessness Nico stepped forward as the empousai old me it was time to go. "Like hell it is," he told her and sliced her head clean off right then. Her head rolled into the pool and fire that had been her hair fizzled out into nothingness. Then her head turned to dust and was swept away by the pool's vacuum.

Nico didn't rush to me and ask me if I was okay after all of that though. He just stood there. He looked dumbfounded. "You remember me?" I wondered as I watched him try to sort it all out in his head. He had seen me before. I had made sure of it. As a son of Hades (Pluto, if you prefer) he deserved to know who his soldier was, but only in a time of dyer – not need, just dyer. I had done the same thing for his sister.

"You were there when I someone hung me up. I was supposed to die…" I remembered the day:

_I had been going about my rounds. Fortunately, there was some sort of fight happening in the world where the Keres got to fight over who killed who. They would then have contests as to who could cause the fiercest pain in their dying moments. I had taken the liberty, myself, to cover any deaths at that time in the U.S.A. They wouldn't be gone for long. One could only make bleeding to death last so long. _

_One of my charges of the day was a boy that went by the name Nico di Angelo. I made it to him in record time really. Children of Hades where always of high protocol. I was to escort him to a peaceful death, no matter the manor. So I met Nico di Angelo as someone pulled him from some dark a dirty place and threw a rope over the banister of a gorgeous grand staircase. They looped a noose around his neck and tightened the rope as they got him up on a stool. _

"_Any last words?" they had asked him. It was really just a thug team of titan war leftovers, but they had done enough to capture Nico di Angelo. _

_I appeared to him then. I stood right behind his captures and gave a calm smile. "Repeat after me," he nodded to show that he understood me and to answer their questions. "The reign of Hades has yet to be unleashed on you. Attempting to kill me will only bring on your own death." Nico did as he was told and repeated every word I said. _

_When I smirked to show my approval the men around him laughed. "I'd like to see that Hell Boy. When you die, you die. Angels of Death don't give a shit who you are." The main one seemed so cocky that I couldn't help but to hate him. I don't know why I defied protocol really other than that a piece of me was still mortal and I wanted this guy to eat his words. I can't go back though. I can't change it, and I'm glad I can't because as those men left the room they kicked the chair out from under Nico. As soon as the door closed for that final man I drew my sword and sliced the rope so that he fell to the floor and was able to take revenge on all those men and he did. _

I came back to reality and he was still gawking at me as if didn't quite understand. My wings found home back beneath my skin and he seemed to be able to wake up some. "I will never forget what you did for me." Nico kneeled to me in respect and bowed his head for a moment. When the moment passed he stood tall and looked me straight in the eye. "I'll also never understand why you did it. So why did you do it?"

I drew back my hood from my face so that he could see my face again. "You know what they say about karma."

* * *

><p><strong>What goes around comes around. <strong>

**Perhaps it was fate, but Brandie was dead. Is their fate for the dead, or have the Fates given up on them? Who knows? Maybe I do. So many questions you could ask. **

**Ask them in your comments please and tell me what you think. (The first time I typed please I spelled wrong. That has been my kind of day. Oh bother.)**

**Sincerely,**

**wisegirlindisguise**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey you guys. I'm sorry I've been kind of absent for a while, but I'm going to post this and hopefully get some more stuff up soon. It just takes some time. It's really all my fault. I'm not gonna blame my life or nothing. **

* * *

><p>Nico had been right about the scars. After a few more days of my water intake being replaced by nectar there were barely any lines on my stomach. The leftover pink lines would never quite fade though so it was officially a bad wound. It took a lot to leave a permanent scar on a half-blood, but there was definite evidence that it was possible. It was right in front of me in the mirror.<p>

Unfortunately, I was now alone in my small room at the Old Ranch Inn. I had become good friends with the manager of the place. An older woman who took pride with sitting with me beside the pool. The maid always made sure to wait I was out of the room before she came in, but wasn't that always was. I had been told by my few friends in my first lifetime that I reeked of death. It was more of an aura really, but one could definitely tell if it was me that was near them. An angel of death had that certain air to them. How unfortunate it was.

Nico had to step away. He claimed there were other souls that they had caught and he had to relocate them. He kept us all apart though. He didn't bring any new people through. It was as if we were kids who didn't get along so he sat us as far away as possible from each other. I hadn't seen him in a week or two, and I hadn't left the hotel either.

"I think I'm going to go out today. I'll be back later tonight," I decided as we sat there and the women, Rachel, nodded as if it was a good idea.

"You haven't gotten out much since you got in. That poor boy said you just weren't up to it, so he was going to adventure around on his own." Rachel sighed as if she thought Nico were my boyfriend. Obviously, she thought she was all knowing and Nico was out cheating on me. This lovely soap opera had worked out in her head so fantastically. That was probably why she was so fascinated with me.

"I had some medical issues," I said simply because it was partially true, but lies seemed to be my life at the moment. "I'm ready to go explore though now, with or without him."

"Where are you going to go?" Rachel asked sitting at the edge of her chair as if I was about to spill some dirty secret about another lover in town that I just had to see.

I pointed to the mountains we could see from the pool and smiled. "There." Rachel gace me an odd look and then walked off wishing me luck on my journey. "Thanks," I laughed at her reaction and then went back into my room where I put together a pack for the day and put on sturdy clothing he had left me. With only a quick goodbye to Rachel, I left the hotel for the first time in weeks.

The mountain was Mt. San Jacinto and it was gorgeous really, probably one of the most gorgeous places I had seen in a while. With a few bits of help from my wings I was able to finally rest on top of a large boulder. I was sure if a helicopter passed over and saw me they would question my ability to climb the stone. Or the Mist would take care of me if I willed it. I could simply be a large bird, a very large bird.

Across from my spot I saw a large hillside covered in wildflowers. It seemed all too corny, but I found myself lying in them. With the flowers there they were able to hide my wings and I got to stretch them out to full length. Much like one's fingers pop, some of the joints popped and I smiled. It had been too long since I was able to stretch my wings to full length and it sent a wave of bliss through me.

The clouds above me were moving slowly almost as if they were taking their time. They inched across the sky with the speed of a snail. I pitied the ones that sped across the sky because they missed the scene below. They missed the perfect vantage point they got from…above.

I could get that vantage point. Couldn't I? Flying was like riding a bike…hopefully. I would be able to sore over the land and see it like the clouds saw it.

Before I could really think it through, I was already standing up. I bent my knees and pushed myself off the ground ready to sore. My first attempt ended up with me face down in the dirt. I tumbled for a few yard and rolled to a stop on my but eventually laughing. My second attempt left me frustrated. Third time was not the charm. Do not EVER believe that lie. The fourth time got me into the air though.

After being dead for twenty years wind was not needed, so for the first twenty minutes or so I didn't take it into account. It sent me tumbling through the air a good few times and then the barrel rolls left me dizzy. When I did level out I had to make the world stop pitching to the side from spinning so many times and then I was able to look at the sight I had come to see.

The land stretched out like a giant green rug. The mountain looked like this pile of dust except the wind couldn't push it into contortion. It stood strong against the weather. The flower fields on the hillsides looked like needle holes filled with mustard. The little yellow dots made my eyes hurt eventually and I moved on. I moved on to look at the coast and the rest of the Californian coast.

I spent the whole day in the sky with no one but myself to lead me where I wanted to go. I didn't have assignments. I didn't have to end lives. I didn't have to cajole a soul into acceptance of their death. For once, in twenty years, I was free.

So why did I still feel so utterly empty?

My fingertips caressed the air as it swiftly move by. The feathers on my wings moved with every motion in the Earth. I felt everything and nothing all at once. Twenty years of accepting death and I was thrown back into life. Here, in life I had no incentive to live. There was nothing to live for. While in death I had a job and, believe it or not, a dad who took care of me and loved me. The gods were thought to be heartless in my time. Some still believed that. I knew my father to be different though. We had meals together which even the living don't get with their father's sometimes. The only souls that wanted to escape were those that were regretting the life they had. I didn't regret a second of my life. Not one.

I spent my childhood as a little girl, a real little girl. My mother never demanded that I grow up. I was not asked to be something I wasn't. I simply was who I was and who I am. I loved my mother for it.

She tried to save my life too.

We had been driving towards California to spend some time with my grand parents. They were sweet people that lived in a little Villa with the rest of their shuffle-boarding friends. It was raining though. The wind hit us the wrong way and the truck lost control. She turned the wheel as fast as she could and sent her side of the car straight for the truck. The last thing she told me before she died was that I was a goober and she loved me. She did all she could to save me and it didn't work.

There were days, when I had first passed away, that I wanted to be alive so that I could live for her. Then I figured it was the best and that's why I let it go. I wouldn't want to live without her. She was all I had and I wouldn't ever be able to get over it. My death, I get over. Life without her was not an option. If I had tried I don't know how long I would've lasted. My grandparents would've suffocated me at the best. So death was better in its own way.

My landing took me tumbling down a foothill until I rolled to a stop at the bottom. For some reason, it made me laugh. It was the first time in a really long time that I really laughed. I had to wait to catch my breath before I headed back towards town sucking down all the water in my water bottle.

The sun was long gone and the stars had come out. They were the only light to my road home as I snuck into the back entrance of the hotel. I crept to my room after waving to the night manager and unlocked the door. Unfortunately, the night manager was not as much as my friend as the day manager because she did not warn me _at all. _

Nico tapped his foot as he stood there. His dark eyes were brooding and he looked like he would've shot me if he could. I had only told the manager where I was going, and the information had obviously been withheld from him. Good. I was my own person. I didn't need his approval.

"Where've you been?" He demanded surging forward. At first I thought he was going to shove me but he brushed past me and locked the door and shut the blinds to the French doors.

"Out."

He grabbed my shoulders and spun me around looking at me dead on. His eyes went on forever threatening to suffocate me in their abyss. "How in the hell was I supposed to know where you went? How did I know you weren't dead?"

"Why would it matter? Isn't that where I'm headed?" That snapped him out of it. It was true. There was no need to protect me when all they were going to do was get Thanatos around to me to collect my soul. Like I didn't know, Nico had me locked up like a pig for slaughter. My ending was death. I knew that. I was no idiot.

Nico let go of my shoulders and walked into the bathroom slamming the door. I climbed into the bed which I had become accustomed to over my stay and slipped under the covers. He could be mad all he wants. I wasn't. There was no need to get caught in having regrets for hurting his feelings. He had brought it on himself.

In the middle of the night, I was woken up and Nico was sitting next to me on the bed. "I'm sorry," he whispered as if the dark demanded the quiet from him. "A lot of the people I collect treat this left over time like it's a frat party. They go on disappearing and drinking and I have to drag them back when they're passed out. I don't usually have to protect them." He wouldn't look up to meet my eyes but I didn't ask it of him. Apologizing was already hard enough for him.

"All I want to do, Nico, is be back where I belong, and I'm going to take advantage of these time when I don't fit in at all." His intrigue slowly grew as he looked up at me as if my words didn't make sense. "When you've been dead long enough there's just no more need for life. There's no more feeling." My words had dropped to a whisper as well and it almost seemed like just a breath and I couldn't find the body behind it anymore.

Without warning, his warmth enveloped my lips with the softest touch. His lips were against mine with the gentlest touch as if he wasn't sure if I would agree with the action. For a moment, I thought my words were true: I had no more feeling. However, that was only because I convinced myself of it. Within a few moments I could feel myself falling back into the mortal state of mind where I over thought _everything._ My first stupid thought that seemed all too obvious in retrospect was, _"Maybe he likes me." _

It was naïve. I was being stupid, and yet I tumbled further because I was a mess; I had been sleeping for hours, and I started to care. My fingers tangled into his hair and I pulled him closer begging for that utterly human warmth that I lacked for so long. I could feel his compassion and his love, though it was all testosterone based. It was so human, yet it was so very appetizing.

For that night I could pretend that he did though, and in the morning maybe we could forget it all. Maybe could go back to not caring. I could be ready for death like I had been for weeks, couldn't I? No, that craving wasn't just something I could fulfill. Once it began I took it on. From there, I spiraled down into something that I would never crawl out of because like it or not I was human and it didn't matter if I had come back from the dead. I was flesh, blood, and hormones.

* * *

><p><strong>I like that last sentence. It makes me smile. It was interesting to write. I hope you enjoyed. Tell me what you think! I want feedback and I will take criticism and improve my style. Thank y'all for reading! <strong>

**Sincerely,**

**wisegirlindisguise**


	4. Chapter 4

**Like I said I'm trying to get more stuff up plus I wanted to get on to this next part of the story so that y'all could see what happens. **

* * *

><p>The next day I was wrapped in sheets with a note on the pillow. Like every cheesy movie that was ever shoved down our throats it told me that Nico would be back in a little while and a flower was sitting next to it. Unlike the movies there was utter panic that fluttered inside of me. He had disappeared for weeks before, what would stop him now?<p>

Me. That's what all of you are thinking. I'm the reason he's going to stick around. Then again: what if he did this to keep me around? He knows that if there's a chance of me falling for him, I'm not going anywhere. He won't have to worry about me leaving the hotel because I'll spend every waking moment wishing for him to be there beside me. Yes, I'm that cliché. And most definitely, I'm that predictable. It's unfortunate. It's depressing. With lack of a better word, it sucks.

Everyone in their life prepares themselves for this moment. Don't even pretend you don't. You have those thoughts about your first time and whether it hurts like _they_ say, if you feel so attached like the stereotype, and then you wonder how you're going to take it. Every time this comes to mind you convince yourself you can handle. You're different, just like everyone else. Truth is, until you're in that moment you have no idea how much it means to you.

That's why I couldn't move. I finished reading my lover's note. Then I set it down and rolled back to my side of the bed, and what did I do then? I stared at the ceiling. I stared as if it was going to tell me something that I wanted to hear. It was going to assure me that he would be back, and that he loved me. It didn't matter what I lost my train of thought to, it ended up there and there was still no answer to come until he got back.

By then, I had forced myself to bathe and get dressed though I wore a giant sweatshirt that had appeared in my belongings somehow. I used it to cover my knees as I sat in the recliner and I had been staring at the French doors when he walked in which seemed to scare him a little bit. "Are you psychic? Did you know I'd walk in?" Nico asked with the smallest of smiles and I let that smile get to me like nothing else would. In my mind, problems I had fabricated started to dissolve and I started to feel better.

"No, I was just thinking." The smile slowly faded and he nodded to my words. The worry crept back up inside me. As he took a seat on the couch that was just to me right I turned towards and he seemed to wait for some kind of conformation that would verify his actions of the previous night. When we both tried to say something at the same time he backed off immediately because he could see this utter hopelessness that I felt and that I needed to voice. I didn't even give him some big question it was really simple actually: "You know who I am, right?"

"Of course, you're the daughter of Thanatos, an Angel of Death." I nodded and he tried to think more as if he had missed part of the answer and I was waiting for it. I really didn't have anything to say though. My conversation ended when I had meant for it to go on into some sort of conversation that would lead a group epiphany where the both of us realized we were being ridiculous. "What's this about Brandie?" Nico asked touching my knee and I just stared at his hand as it sat over the cloth of the hoodie.

"What ever happened to your friends?" His hand dropped from my knee and he stared at me as if my question had been a slap to the face. "Nico, you said you're friends would come soon and I know why their coming. I've heard about them, and I'm grateful for them because that means I don't have to collect as many souls when I join my father again. Why aren't they here though?" It all spilled out. It was something I could stop, just this emotional vomit that made tears rise in my throat and this pain echo in my chest unforgiving to an extreme extent. He wouldn't answer though. "Nico, they were supposed to be here. And now…"

"Now you're not ready to go," he smiled though it didn't make t to his eyes and it enhanced the sadness in his features. "Gods, I'm so stupid," Nico set his head in his hands and he stared at the floor like I had the ceiling. "I've gone and screwed everything up because I'm such a selfish bastard." The word made me jolt backwards and I looked at him with alarm. He couldn't possibly think that.

"It's okay Nico. I don't have to be ready for Death. Death just happens." I whispered because it was the only thing I could think to say yet it sounded so stupid when it left my lips.

"Just happens, yea," he chuckled this airy, pitiful-sounding noise and rolled his eyes, "just happens and that hands of my friends." Nico's eyes met mine and I sighed. "You're right though. You don't have to be ready." For a moment, I thought he was going to kill me because he got up and headed over to his belongings where he grabbed his sword and his ring. I stood and was about to tell him not to when he looked at me with this wild glint in his eyes. "We're gonna run." The words almost seemed playful the way he said them. Not sadistic but as if Nico were a child ready to play the biggest game of Hide & Seek of his life. "Grab your things. We're leaving."

* * *

><p>The sun was long gone and Nico had my bags and his packed and loaded into the car. "This is your idea of discrete?" I asked as I slid into the passenger seat. It almost made me laugh as he shut the trunk and then touched it as if he had accidentally slammed it a little too hard and had hurt it. He may not have even realized he had done it.<p>

"Don't make fun of her," he mumbled as he climbed into the driver seat.

"Her?"

"What?" He demanded and I just snickered not even bothering to answer. "It's one of the few things my dad gave me. It's a Porsche Carrera GT," Nico told me as he started it and it roared to life beneath us. I could see the smile light his features and he turned to me as if I would be just as impressed. "We'll fit right in with all the people we're moving towards." He tore out of the parking lot and began to speed up until we reached the speed limit and were soaring at the highest speed we could go inconspicuously.

"Are you gonna stay there with me?" I asked as he slid me a box with heels in them. I was already in a black dress that stopped about mid thigh and flowed over me. It was comfortable fabric. The length was a different story. The shoes were red heels and looked ridiculously tall. I looked over at Nico dressed in his sports jacket and a button down shirt with pants that matched his jacket.

"As much as I can without drawing attention to myself," which actually meant no and that I would be stuck in a hotel room, or at least the building.

I stayed quiet after that because I didn't want to bring myself farther down. I figured that if I stayed quiet and kept away from questions than there wouldn't be anymore let downs. My forehead rested against the window and I stared at the white lines that continued to dot the side of the road. What I had to do what hide if I wanted to stay with Nico, and all of it was completely different from what I had to do to go back to where I belonged.

We pulled up to the hotel and a valet helped me from the car before walking around to take the keys from Nico but he denied the valet and simply walked over to me. "You already have a reservation. It's under my name." I mumbled an okay but looked to the ground. Nico lifted my chin with a finger. "I'll come back in a couple of days, and I'll spend time with you. I have to go to camp for a little while though."

When he tried to kiss me I turned away and he kissed my cheek. "Okay Nico," I pulled my purse from the care and strapped on the back of my heels before I stalked off for the door. I heard the car rev behind me and then Nico was gone like that. The lobby opened up in front of me in a gorgeous expanse and people in nice clothes walked around laughing and smiling in groups. Couples linked arms and it almost seemed classic.

I went to the counter and got my room key. The woman said she was very happy to see me there and flashed a small smile the reached her grey eyes. Her blonde hair was wrapped tightly in a bun and the man working the station next to her even smiled at me. His green eyes shone brightly with life but both of them seemed too tense with their smile as if I was going to figure out some sort of secret. I smiled kindly back and moved on toward the elevators.

Waiting at the elevator was a man in a sharp black suit. His hair was slicked back and when the elevator opened flooding light into the slightly darkened hall where the elevators were I could see the shadow of wings on the far wall. "Hi Daddy," I greeted him and fed my arm through his.

"Hello Honey, you know we have to talk." He said it calmly as we walked into the elevator and he hit the button for my floor. The button brightly lit up and the door began to close.

"Yes Daddy, I know."

* * *

><p><strong>Yes, this was a filler chapter, but I had to bring in some nice confrontation. Make your decision now. Should she go back to helping her dad in the Underworld as an Angel of Death? OR, should she stay with Nico? You have to think about everything that his happening as if this was right after the Son of Neptune. Tell me what you think! <strong>

**Oh, and if you want to join Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase on the team of people catching escaped souls let me know and give me a character including a personality and wardrobe selection. I do these every now and then. They're fun. **

**Sincerely, **

**wisegirlindisguise**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hi all. I know I've lost readers over my months of inactivity, but if you are reading let me know some how. I do like to hear from you guys. I'm also still taking OC submissions. It'd be nice to get more people in because the team still needs some members. **

**Hope you enjoy. **

* * *

><p>So I didn't tell Nico that I already knew my dad would find me. My dad had his way with knowing what was going to happen before it happened because he was particularly close with the Fates. Now, the Fates don't beat around the bush like an oracle does, especially when a knife is held to their throat. So he knew exactly where I was going to be. So I was eventually sitting right in front of him while he moved around the kitchen of the giant hotel room. He pulled together a meal and set it at the bar where we both took our seat picking at the meal slowly.<p>

"So how has life treated you?" His voice seemed unsure as if he really didn't want to have the conversation, but it had to come. We were both avoiding it and we had been for weeks. He could've found me at any time but he pretended that the half-bloods had a better chance of tracking me, and he left it all up to them until Nico had me moved. Apparently, that change in my path of life triggered him to make a move and stop anymore "shenanigans." His description; not mine.

"It's been okay," I shrugged indifferently and let him believe for a moment that everything was okay and that I was fine with dying all over again. I looked up at him momentarily and then I turned back to my food, which despite his best efforts, was slightly burned. "You look good in human form Daddy. I'm not used to you without your wings." Maybe I could change the subject and I wouldn't have to fight with the awkward silence anymore.

"It's a wretched form really. I don't know how you stand it. Your wings ache, no?" He asked setting down his fork and looking up at me suddenly with an anger at the need to be in such a mundane form. He wasn't a people person even though he was gentle death. He didn't really have to meet people he just had to understand pain. (Knowing the Keres, pain was definitely easy to understand.)

Wings aching? I had never really though of it until that moment. There was a tug at the edge of my shoulder blades and I was suddenly aware of set of body parts that I had been ignoring. They had been tucked away since my flight and I didn't realize how much I messed it until just then.

"We're very high up," Thanatos noted and stood as if the height called to him. He walked toward the balcony and opened the door stepping outside. I hurried to follow. On my way, I kicked off my shoes and walked barefoot out onto the balcony where the wind threatened to drown us out. "You know my relationship with the Fates," Thanatos whispered and the wind seemed to carry his voice to me and then drown out completely so that no one else could hear. I didn't have to respond to his rhetorical statement. "How did you not kill him already?"

"I don't want to think about this Daddy. Can we let it go?" Thanatos looked at me for a moment and then he smiled as if he hadn't even upset me. That was Daddy. It wasn't that he didn't care and blew it off. He took everything literally. So as soon as I said leave it alone, the whole subject was dropped until I broached it again.

Thanatos turned toward the city that hung out beneath the balcony and he climbed up onto the ledge as if he was going to jump. "Have you tried to fly with the wind against you yet Brandie?" He asked as he spread his arms. The wind seemed to hug at him lovingly as his wings began to unfurl from his skin through almost invisible slits in his clothes.

"Yes Daddy, it was awful at first," I climbed up along side him but several feet away so that I didn't get shoved off the balcony by the sheer power of the slightest twitch of his massive wings. "But then it was amazing," I told him and he turned to me with a large grin that I never thought I would see on his face. It was really like a ride when one flew with questionable wind. You could pitch and turn. You could even be thrown down or up. It was terrifying. It was freeing.

"…sir," I opened my eyes and looked over at the girl tapping at my dad's wings. He was almost ignoring her. "Sir!" she shouted over the wind and Thanatos finally turned to her with a suddenness that knocked her to the ground. She mumbled a few words under her breath but then looked up at him and then me. She shied away immediately and looked back to Thanatos almost with determination. "Nico is on his way to his father's. I think he's going to check in with you."

"Very well. Adrienne, you're in charge of introducing Brandie to everyone else," Thanatos looked at me with a kind smile and then slowly leaned backwards until he tumbled off of the edge of the balcony. After he fell about to floors he vanished into the blackness.

Adrienne seemed to have to take this deep breath and I let her as I hopped down from the ledge. I pulled my hair up into a ponytail. The curls I had forced my stubborn hair into bounced against the nape of my neck, and then I waited patiently until Adrienne was ready to face me. As soon as she did I was able to take in all of her beauty.

She was wearing a light blue dress that hugged her bust and diaphragm and then flowed out in different lengths of two skirts; both had jagged edges. Her hair was tied up in a bun that was messy an oddly appealing as if the messiness was on purpose. Different chunk of hair were dyed blue and the ends of them stuck out in all different ways from the bun as well as the brown hair mixed in with it. She fingered her necklace that glinted sapphire while her eyes glinted a brilliant emerald color.

Yes, she was gorgeous. However, there was a dangerous air to her that flood from her almost in a protective manor. The closer you got to her heart. The stronger it got. The first thing to set off the alarms in my head was the slight glimpse of the knife strapped to her thigh beneath her skirts. As long as I didn't give her reason to use it, I would be fine, and I was aware of that. There was no need to go anywhere though. My father knew her, trusted her with me. I would be fine.

"Adrienne Pearson," the girl extended a hand and I took it gratefully, smiling to her calmly.

"Brandie Michaels," with introductions out of the way she nodded kindly and led me back into the hotel room where she picked up the phone.

She called two numbers and said minimal words. Then she sat down on the couch next to me and sat silently until someone knocked on the door. "I've got it." She stood suddenly and jogged over to the door in her short heeled sandals. Then she let the two people that had been working the counter in. The girl pulled her hair down from a tight bun to a regular pony tail and shed the vest she had been wearing which also took away her undercover nameplate. She looked like a tomboy police officer in her button up shirt and simply dress pants with boots. The boy took off his vest and tried to pull most of the grease from his hair.

"You two, this is Brandie Michaels. She's the daughter of Thanatos we've been searching for." Adrienne then dismissed herself and got back on the phone as if it was her job to be the concierge for the group.

"Hi, I'm Percy Jackson," the boy extended his hand and then drew it back apologizing for the hair grease along with the tattoo that immediately drew my attention on his inner forearm.

"You're still an oaf," the girl kissed his cheek and pushed him to the side before taking my hand which had been left frozen in the air. "My name's Annabeth Chase. You're a very difficult person to track." I shrugged as if it explained everything and Annabeth fell into a chair crossing her legs. "You don't say much, do you?"

"I've only gotten two words out of her," Adrienne reported as she hung up the phone for the final time. "The guys are heading in since Thanatos has Nico back at the record company. I think I'll head down stairs and keep playing the part. I'll get them all up here in one piece. Anybody have a room key I could use." I dug for mine and handed it to her smiling. She thanked me and was out the door.

If she was talking to her friends she seemed fine. I was the sketchy character in the situation though and I was probably not one of the people she felt comfortable around. I looked over at Percy and Annabeth who seemed to be contemplating something between each other silently. How they communicated so well with only looks surpassed my knowledge. Maybe they had been friends a really long time. I questioned the stability of their dating relationship and how it would tear each other apart if they ever broke up. It was really very depressing. Of course, people didn't usually see the world the way I did and the couple probably would never really see that.

"So how's it been? Going around catching people sending them back to the Underworld?" I made sure to avoid the word "killing" in my question because then they would feel the guilt.

When they looked at me I could already tell it was there though. They joined hands silently and watched me as if my question had been some kind of sick joke. "Brandie, it's been horrible," Annabeth told me and Percy enveloped her hand in both of his. "We have no idea how you and your father do it."

"My father was born for the judge. It's his purpose in the grand scheme of things." MY answer was automatic almost as if I said it so often that I didn't even really have to think about it. "It's a different story for me, but I don't do it painfully. My job is to ensure a comfortable death, like when people pass in their sleep."

The phone rang and I reached for the receiver and pulled the phone off the hook. "Hello?" I said through the phone clearly.

"Hey, it's me."

"Hi Me," I chuckled as I curled up on the end of the couch near the phone. I pulled the phone closer and cradled it to my ear with both hands. "Where are you going for the next couple days?" I wondered and he chuckled.

"I'm just going to camp. I have to check in with Chiron. I'm also going to help out a little bit on some final repairs to a warship the camp has been working on."

"Then you're coming back?" I asked almost desperately.

"Then I'm coming back," he chuckled and then said something to someone close to him. "Well, I have to go. I'll see you soon." He hung up the phone before I could say goodbye because there was something that growling and then their was a loud roar.

"Who was that?" Annabeth asked with a female provoked intrigue. "You were red the whole time."

"My dad didn't tell you?" I asked and rolled my eyes as if my dad had been ridiculous. "It was Nico di Angelo." I smiled and they two looked at each other before they looked at me with a look of confusion. "What?" I asked shifting back to a more normal sitting position.

"You're dad didn't tell you about Nico di Angelo and what deep shit we're all in right now?" Percy asked looking at me with that same confused look that seemed to fit his face perfectly as if he wore it frequently.

"No, did Nico tell you about Lamia?" They shook their heads. "Then we all have stories to tell."

* * *

><p><strong>Story time!<strong>

**Sincerely,**

**wisegirlindisguise**


End file.
